Thursday, 28 December 2017

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has challenged the ever bumbling local authorities to up their game and start providing clean water to residents and end recurrences of waterborne diseases. This comes as Harare has in the last 12 months been the epicentre of the typhoid outbreak as it contributed to more than 70 percent of all cases countrywide.“To minimise disease outbreaks, I urge local authorities to ensure that there is adequate and functioning water and sanitation infrastructure in their areas of jurisdiction.“I exhort councils to ensure orderly settlement of people together with other infrastructure required for decent habitation,” Mnangagwa said during the presentation of his maiden State-of-the-Nation Address (Sona). Uncollected garbage has been linked with waterborne diseases such as typhoid and cholera as it is a breeding ground for the bacteria which then flows into water sources. Boreholes which most people had opted for are now being condemned as most of them are contaminated by E coli- the typhoid causing bacteria. In his Sona, Mnangagwa also warned land barons and council officials that his government will bring to an end the practice as part of pursuing strict town planning methods.“Government will insist on the return by local authorities to proper town planning practices and strict adherence to business and building by-laws.“The corrupt parcelling out of land to land barons and the construction of houses on undesignated areas and in a haphazard manner must stop,” Mnangagwa warned.